Hi all, a bit of background before I ask my question. I have a 2012 RS265 CUP. I originally planned on staying stock but it didn’t last long. First mods were a deres to let a little more sound through and new cup shocks with grams lowering springs. I was happy with this for about a year as now the car looked and sounded so much better, but I always wanted more. A few little changes were made over the year as I upgraded as I serviced and maintained the car. New timing belt and water pump was a must as the car was on 65k miles. Full service including including gearbox oil and spark plugs gapped down to 0.6mm. All 6 uprated ball joints. New discs all round to remove the cheese grater slotted discs and get some plain ones on, pf-z pads at the front and yellowstuffs at the rear. Braided lines and rbf600 fluid. HEL clutch damper delete as mine was leaking. New inner and outer tie rods and drop links. (After finishing that list I realised where all my money goes lol) After turning 21 last year my insurance would let me do some performance mods without bankrupting me and the itch for more power started creeping in. I fitted an Airtec FMIC and a BMC panel filter and contacted engine dynamics (shoutout to Andy for being so helpful) for a stage 1 tune. I had a small boost leak from my recirc valve so lost a little peak performance. Results were 298hp@≈5700rpm and 319ftlb@≈3600rpm mapped to the sports button. With no leak Andy said I’d probably be running just over 300hp. With the boost leak from the recirc I had to decide between an uprated recirc or a BOV. I didn’t want the car to become obnoxious or chavvy, but the little boy inside me settled on the BOV. I’m so glad I did, makes me smile every time I come off the throttle. This brings us to to today, I’ve decided to go for it, I want more power! I’ve just ordered a Milltek catback to go on the car and I’m ready to start buying more stuff. This brings me to my questions: How hard is the cat to remove/fit? I’m still running my stock cat and it obviously needs to go. I’ll be getting a sports cat in the near future, is it best to leave it and get someone to do it with the new turbo or can it be done on the driveway? Hybrid turbos - what do people recommend? Ideally I’d like to be making around 350hp so I don’t have to worry about forging the engine now, however I’d like a turbo that I can still use should I decide to forge the engine in the future. Intake - I’m still running the stock box with a panel filter. I have some 3” flexi piping bringing some cold air from the little hole (which I made a little bigger) just above the daytime running lights to the intake pipe of my airbox. It looks like the previous owner took a hacksaw to the pipe as it was cut off inline with the battery tray so I mounted the other end just infront of that. It’s ghetto and I’m not sure if it makes a difference but I had the tubing going spare and it only took an hour so why the hell not. My question here. Is an intake really worth the money? I’m not really pushing for peak numbers I just want decent gains across the rev range. I do love the intake sound so I may just do it for that in the end, but I’m a little concerned that most kits just seem to suck hot air from the engine bay. Blow off valve - I’m currently running the yellow spring in my BOV (recommended for 15-23 psi) and am running 1.4bar (≈20 psi) tune. I’m after a little more turbo flutter in the lower revs and for the BOV to vent under higher loads. If I were to put a stiffer spring in would this accomplish that? I have the blue spring (23-30 psi). I only have a very basic knowledge here and I don’t wana mess things up or have the BOV fail to release excess boost completely. Injectors / fuelling - I’ll be getting 630cc injectors to go with the hybrid turbo. Any other fuel system changes recommended or will just injectors do? Clutch - I’m assuming with the extra power it would be wise to get a new clutch so I’m after some recommendations on what to get please. I’ll be getting lightened flywheel too. Anyone currently running a lightened flywheel I’m curious to know how noticeable the difference is. Last but not least, Gearbox - I know the gearboxes aren’t the best on the megs. Will it handle these mods will or do I run the risk of it crapping out on me? Any small mods that can be made to make it more reliable? Thanks for reading. Please feel free to suggest any helpful supporting mods that will help with reliability and power that I’ve missed.
Forgot to mention above. I’m starting to feel like one of the engine mounts is going. As far as I’m aware there stock so was thinking of getting the powerflex mounts. Two questions here. How hard are they to fit yourself using axel stands? How do they effect the ride. On the subject of powerflex what’s the general consensus on poly bushes. Worth getting a poly bush kit or are oem the way to go?
Hi, This site has all the knowledge and information you would ever need, with a lot of the current guys in Renault sport Meganes for many years, you just need to search. You’ll need to change the OEM cat to release more power, using either a sports cat or decat pipe. Be careful with you choice with regards to further modifications and the need for the car to be MOT’d. Some of the aftermarket hybrid turbos have their own down pipe or adaptor plate. ( Garrett etc ) This all depends on how much power you want. Most of the experienced Guys on here and the tuners would not recommend any more than 350 bhp on standard internals, and there’s no guarantee you won’t get piston failure with this power. So if we are working on 350 bhp a sports cat would be fine with your new exhaust, you will also need to up grade you intercooler, ( Wagner ) then with you injectors and hybrid turbo and a visit to EFI parts, RS tuning or Engine dynamics you should be around those figures. If your changing your own cat try to not damage it as it’s worth money, Which helps with your own build. To remove The front of the car will need to be put on axle stands. Disconnect the exhaust Remove lower engine torque mount. ( dog bone ) Remove the drivers drive shaft and drive shaft center bearing. Loosen front right engine mount. ( don’t take bolts out, just loosen ) Disconnect front stabiliser mount. ( top of engine by bulkhead ) Remove heat shield and lambada sensor from cat. Remove cat bolts and wiggle and swear. There is a video on YouTube ( french ) which helps. It’s worth having an intake fitted as well. As you stated and we all know that with increasing power on our turbo charged cars also increases the intake temperatures. Changing the engine mounts make a big difference with a slight disadvantage of some vibration. The lower mount and stabiliser mount can be changed completely. You can then fit a insert to the top right engine mount. It’s advised that you change the gearbox mount to the later 275 mount and fit the updated bolt ( M10 from Ktec ) or modify the bolt to M12. The lower mount must be done as it reduces the movement / stress on the gearbox mount. ( bolt failure common problem ) changing the mounts is straight forward just do one at a time and support the engine and gearbox when working on the front mount and gearbox mount. I’ve only changed the rear axle bushes to poly bushes as the standard ones look a bit weak and it’s the main point of contact for the whole rear beam and suspension. Hope this helps and search away Kev.
One thing that rarely gets mentioned, although I run a 360 bhp R26, my lack of ability means I do not get the best out of it, so the power is wasted on me. Powerflex all over mine, the problem is vibration of panels in car. Next lesson I learnt, the more power you extract, the greater strain on other components. I ran a FQ400, with 636bhp, but there were always other problems with it. By all means up the power, it can be addictive, but do it sensibly, and learn from other peoples mistakes. On the Intake side, mine is down behind the wheel arch, and never given any problems, just do not drive through a flood!.
